Atari 1050

By the time it was available, a wide variety of third party drives had been introduced for the 8-bit platform, many of which were faster and offered true double-density support for 180 kB.

The launch was further marred by releasing it with the older Atari DOS 2.0S, S for "single", which did not support the 130 kB capacity.

Atari replaced 2.0 with DOS 3.0 which supported the enhanced density mode, but used an entirely new format that was incompatible with earlier disks.

When Jack Tramiel purchased Atari in 1984 there were warehouses filled with unsold 1050s, which delayed production of a replacement.

For reasons unknown, the 815 was produced only in small numbers starting in 1980 and then abandoned, leaving the platform only with the 810 which were described by InfoWorld as "noisy, slow and inefficient.

Among the changes was a new design language from Regan Cheng using off-white and black plastics with brushed metal overlay on switches and other fixtures.

When it was introduced at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in December 1982, it was shown with the new Atari 1010 cassette deck, and the 1020 plotter and 1025 printers.

The disk mechanism moved from the original Tandon used in the 810 to the new "thinline" design that was slightly shorter and led to a more compact case.

[4] It offered the new "enhanced" or "dual density" option that improved formatted capacity to 130 kB, and replaced the 810 in the market.

The 1050 was described as "a no-frills drive", especially compared to the Rana 1000 and Indus GT, which offered double-density, various high-speed modes, front-panel displays, and many other features.

Notable among these was the ICD Doubler, which added true double-density support allowing it to store 180 kB of data.

By the start of 1984, Atari was losing millions of dollars a day,[12] and their owners, Warner Communications, became desperate to sell off the "loss-plagued" company.

[15] These emerged as the XE series, which were presented at the January 1985 Consumer Electronics Show, along with a restyled 1050 called the XF521.

The back held the two drive number selection switches on the left, two SIO ports in the center, and the power ring jack on the right.

The drive controller was the Western Digital WD2793 using MFM encoding for double-density support, although units built starting in the fall of 1985 used the WD2797.

In November 1984, production moved to Hong Kong, changing to a largely identical mechanism from World Storage Technology.